]
[Footnote 48: Ondegardo, Rel. Seg., Ms - Garcilasso, Com. Real.,
Parte lib. 6, cap. 36. - Dec. de la Aud Real., Ms. - Montesinos,
Mem Antiguas, Ms., lib. 2, cap. 6.]
The extraordinary regulations respecting marriage under the Incas
are eminently characteristic of the genius of the government;
which, far from limiting itself to matters of public concern,
penetrated into the most private recesses of domestic life,
allowing no man, however humble, to act for himself, even in
those personal matters in which none but himself, or his family
at most, might be supposed to be interested. No Peruvian was too
low for the fostering vigilance of government. None was so high
that he was not made to feel his dependence upon it in every act
of his life. His very existence as an individual was absorbed in
that of the community. His hopes and his fears, his joys and his
sorrows, the tenderest sympathies of his nature, which would most
naturally shrink from observation, were all to be regulated by
law. He was not allowed even to be happy in his own way. The
government of the Incas was the mildest, - but the most searching
of despotisms.
Chapter IV:
Education. - Quipus. - Astronomy. - Agriculture. - Aqueducts. -
Guano. - Important Esculents.
"Science was not intended for the people; but for those of
generous blood. Persons of low degree are only puffed up by it,
and rendered vain and arrogant. Neither should such meddle with
the affairs of government; for this would bring high offices into
disrepute, and cause detriment to the state.
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